Hey everyone, this is The_SynchroGuy, and welcome to “YGO Recap Week!” The weekly series where we go over just about any and all Yu-Gi-Oh! related goodness so you don’t miss out on anything.
We have a couple of cool things to talk about today. Especially in the Master Duel topic, because my god did we get a whole bunch of reveals. Granted, most of them were not officially announced by Konami. (Thank you, data miners. Your passions for Yu-Gi-Oh! shows no boundaries.) And of course, the long awaited Power of the Elements (POTE) is now officially released in the TCG, so it’s time to see how the new guys are doing. So anyway, let’s get into it!
TCG News
https://www.yugioh-card.com/en/products/ots20/
The next OTS Pack has been announced to be released in October of this year. We don’t know what’s going to be in this pack, aside from an Ultimate Rare version of Ghost Reaper & Winter Cherries. While that card has not seen as much play as before, it’s still quite a good card. Especially in the mirror matches. Also, while they do not say it, they may be hinting at an Ulti Rare version of Mirrorjade as well. Maybe.
If you want to get your hands on these packs, then be sure to enter at your local’s tournament when they release. And if you do well, you can win multiples of these packs.
https://ygorganization.com/tcg-lost-arts-2022-round-2/
If you’re a fan of the Lost Art Promo cards that we’ve been getting for the past couple of years, then here is the next round of them! We have some good ones in the forms of the Cyber Angel cards, to some old school fan favorites like Axe of Despair, and one that’s not actually playable. That card in the center is “Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal”. This one is just a nice little collectors piece to have. Especially if you’re a fan of Yu-Gi-Oh! Zexal. Even has the main character’s, Yuma Tsukumo’s, Japanese catchphrase, “Kattobing!”
If you want to get your hands on any of these cards, then check your local OTS store and see what they have. Just remember that you need to spend at least $30 on Yu-Gi-Oh! products in order to get one (tax not included).
Master Duel
Oh boy did we get a lot of Master Duel news last week.
First off, the Casual Duel Mode is finally available on Master Duel! If you’ve been sick of playing Ranked Duels, and/or just want a break from the meta, then go play some casual duels. Your rank will not be affected, nor will you be able to complete missions, but it’s a fun way to play whatever kind of deck you want, against whatever kind of random deck you want to play against. (No promises you won’t face anything meta though. People be people sometimes.)
We also received some new animations for cards that currently exist in the game. Monsters like Earthbound Immortal Wiraqocha Rasca and Blackbeard, the Plunder Patroll Captain now have a summon animation. And cards like: Mirror Force, Forbidden Droplet, Called By the Grave, and Raigeki now have animations when they are used. Even Destiny Board now has an animation when you pull off its Win Condition.
We got some leaks this past week on three new upcoming selection packs. (One of which should be out later today or tomorrow after this post was uploaded.) Those packs being: “Cosmic Ocean”, “The Newborn Dragon” and “Invincible Raid”. And as you can see, these packs are going to be bringing some of the changes that we have experienced before Power of the Elements was released. The long awaited Mirrojade is coming soon, along with Guardian Chimera. And with them, Branded Despia will start to establish its territory even more. But we’re also getting support cards for Swordsoul and Marincess, both of which are quite strong in the Official Card Game.
But of course, if you’re more of an anime fan, then these packs will still interest you as we’re getting support for stuff like Blue-Eyes, Rokkets, D/D/D, and Mako Tsunami. And the game will also be introducing Dinomorphia and Beetrooper to the game as well. While they aren’t exactly meta, at least in the actual card game, they can still be quite strong, so do not overlook these guys. We don’t have a release date for these packs yet, except for Invincible Raid, but they will be put into the game in the coming weeks or months, so be ready.
And that’s not all! We’re also getting some new duel fields, new icons, new card sleeves, new mates, and new Solo gates.
One thing I am excited about is the upcoming Duelist Cup event!
If you’re looking to show off how good you are at this game, or at least in Master Duel specifically, then the Duelist Cup is going to be the event for you. We don’t know what kind of prizes you will get from this event yet (maybe those card sleeves that were also leaked), but I’m always looking to play some top tier Yu-Gi-Oh! The event starts tomorrow, August 9th, so get ready, duelists!
Also, if you’re curious what’s been really good in Master Duel during the past month, here’s Road of the King’s post going over the data for it.
https://roadoftheking.com/master-duel-metagame-report-s7/
I will admit, it’s surprising to see Eldlich still being at the top. But given how Master Duel is a best of 1 duel, it starts to make a little more sense. So build your decks wisely, fellow duelists.
Yu-Gi-Oh! Meta
OCG:
https://roadoftheking.com/ocg-2022-07-metagame-report-3-4/
In the OCG land, Darkwing Blast was released almost 2 weeks ago, and Tearlaments continues to dominate, with Sprights still trailing behind. So really, nothing really new there, but what is worth noting are the tech cards they are currently using. For instance, Kshatri-La Fenrir.
Not only is it very easy to summon, but it can also disrupt your opponent’s plays and remove some potential threats. As a bonus, it has a search effect that allows you to search another copy of itself! So in a way, this guy is like Pankratops 2.0, and not limited (yet).
Then there’s the new Byssted cards. At least, a few of them. They act not only as big bodies on board, that can also be used for other plays, but they have quick effects to let you banish a LIGHT or DARK monster from the opponent’s GY. This makes them the perfect tech cards to use against Tearlaments since most of them are DARK monsters. And if the ones that try to Fusion Summon don’t get recycled back into the deck, then the Tearlament player gets no Fusion Summon.
Again, while the format in the OCG is still pretty much the same, the tech cards being used are worth noting here. Especially when Darkwing Blast comes out in the TCG. Even though our format isn’t going to become like this in the OCG, these tech cards are worth picking up, in my opinion.
TCG:
Power of the Elements is now officially released in the TCG, and with it came the expected Spright and Tearlament archetypes. We also had a couple of Regional tournaments take place this past weekend, so we got a chance to see how these archetypes would do in their first week. And they have made their presence known in the TCG metagame. Some of them managed to top at these events, with one Spright deck managing to win one of them. Maybe even more?
However, it wasn’t just all Sprights and Tearlaments. We still had other decks managing to top at these events as well. Such as: P.U.N.K., Branded Despia, Exosister, even Sky Striker made top 4 at one of them. So far, it doesn’t appear that we’re going to be experiencing the “tier 0” Spright format the OCG had to deal with. Granted, this is all within the May 2022 banlist. Given how it’s been a couple of months since May, we may be due to a new banlist at some point. But of course, you should probably not expect it some time soon as we don’t always know what Konami is thinking.
But if you’re more interested in seeing what’s been doing well at a more local level, Yugioh Top Decks has you covered.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J25Ap9TSVvU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QKPh4XFgQt8&t=374s
If you were expecting some major differences within the top deck, sorry to disappoint you. But there are a couple of decks worth noting. Such as Dinomophia, Mathmech, even a Dark Magician deck. The rest though is what we should already be aware of.
https://img.yugioh-card.com/uk/events/detail.php?id=12608
And as a quick reminder, the European Yu-Gi-Oh! Championship is coming up in a couple of weeks. This event is going to be the first major event with POTE now released into the TCG. From it, we’re going to see how big of a deck Spright and Tearlaments can be. To everyone that’s participating in the event, or even just the side events: best of luck!
To everyone else: in the meantime, just keep brandishing your deck against these new meta contenders, practice hard, and remember to have fun.
Card Reveals
https://ygorganization.com/sr13-dark-world-punishment/
The last new support card for Dark Worlds has finally been revealed. And it’s a Solemn card for Fiend decks, not just for Dark Worlds specifically. But its GY effect is restricted to Dark Worlds though, which is also quite good since its can act as a substitution for any form of destruction for any of your Dark World monsters. So even if Dark World players don’t ever actually use the Summon negate effect of this card, the destruction prevention effect alone, in my opinion, makes this card worth trying out.
If you want to see the full deck list for this Structure deck, click here, but keep in mind that this list is for the OCG only. We might not get this exact same deck list in the TCG, be aware.
https://ygorganization.com/ocg-diabolica-dragon-fiend-commander/
And finally, to pair with the Dark World archetype, we finally got the effects revealed for the new VJump promo card, and this card feels like it was specifically made for Dark World. It’s super easy to summon in any Fiend deck, and can easily recover one of your Fiend monsters. I don’t know when we’re going to get this in the TCG, but I would guess maybe around the same time we get the Dark World structure deck? Maybe? We’ll see what happens.
Miscellaneous
Yu-Gi-Oh! Neuron has been given a new update just recently. This update came with the new profile section. This allows you to customize your profile and show off your achievements so others can see what kind of duelists you are. And you can now follow your friends, and/or other duelists that you enjoy, which makes it easier to find deck profiles made from them. This can be really helpful for deck building groups so they can see the latest changes/updates their friends made to their decks.
If you haven’t downloaded Yu-Gi-Oh! Neuron yet, make sure you do. Especially if you are playing Yu-Gi-Oh! in real life. It comes in real handy. And since this is Konami’s property, you can ensure that the card text you see on it are 100% real and up to date.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.konami.YugiohOcgSupports&hl=en_US&gl=US
Decks To Checkout
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03xhyJrZIjQ
El Exordio gives us a build on Mathmech, which is able to do more now thanks to its new support card from POTE. Definitely don’t neglect this deck.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BmE6aKMWsPY
Duel Evolution gives us a sweet take on the Vendread archetype since it too got new support from POTE. Especially if you’re a fan of the DC character, Spawn. These new cards really help out in supporting the idea that you’re supposed to do with them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acfgnnS-YxY
Lastly, if you’ve been wanting to build a HERO deck using the new HERO cards we recently got, then check out fellow dedicated HERO player Jaden BR’s version. Albeit, just ignore 1 card that’s in the Extra Deck since it is not out in the TCG yet.
Favorite Content of the Week
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O0Q27YrXFVs
If you ever wanted to learn what the rules were for Dimension Duels, the type of dueling that was used in the Dark Side of Dimensions movie, TGS Anime has you covered on that.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPYhowHOEbg
If you want to learn how to beat Sprights, Tombox has you covered as he, as a Spright player, tells you some of the best ways to deal with them.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDSuVZmVhAU
Finally, PAK gives a replay of him getting destroyed by a kid in Goat Format. If you enjoy some old school Yu-Gi-Oh!, or seeing pro players getting destroyed, then be sure to check this out.
Conclusion
Thank you guys for reading this! Lots of new stuff has been added to our favorite game so far this month. This gives us a whole bunch of new experiences to have. I will say, I do hope the TCG or Master Duel gets a new banlist soon to go along with all of this. Or would that be too soon? Oh well, it’s not up to me. Anyway, let me know what you guys think about all of this in the comments below!
I’ll see you guys in the next one! Hope you have/had an awesome day today! 
